'Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state in the form of a republic?' will the the oficial question.
“The problem is real and profound,” said Catalonia's President Carles Puigdemont in a statement on Friday morning at the Catalan government’s headquarters in Barcelona in which he outlined the details of the planned referèndum.
The pro-sovereignty leader said that his administration has attempted to reach a negotiated deal with a hostile central government in Madrid “up until the last day” and “repeatedly.”
“We sent proposals to agree on holding a negotiation,” he said. “We have explained it all over the world, but we are reaching the end of the term and we are still without an answer.”
Puigdemont’s announcement of the date and the question of the referendum on Friday morning comes in the face of unwavering opposition from the central government of the conservative Popular Party (PP) which has consistently appealed to the Constitutional Court in a bid to block a referendum it believes is unconstitutional, arguing that the sovereignty resides with all Spaniards.
It also comes several weeks after this paper revealed secret Catalan government plans to unilaterally declare independence in the event that a referendum is not held – a decision labeled by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as “intolerable blackmail.”
But Catalan government spokeswoman Neus Munté recently justified the move citing Madrid’s “refusal” to negotiate a legal referendum that all parties could accept.
Rajoy’s position throughout the Catalan nationalists’ independence drive has been that Spanish Congress must approve a referendum on self-rule, as its outcome affects all Spaniards, not just Catalans.
The pro-sovereignty leader said that his administration has attempted to reach a negotiated deal with a hostile central government in Madrid “up until the last day” and “repeatedly.”
“We sent proposals to agree on holding a negotiation,” he said. “We have explained it all over the world, but we are reaching the end of the term and we are still without an answer.”
Puigdemont’s announcement of the date and the question of the referendum on Friday morning comes in the face of unwavering opposition from the central government of the conservative Popular Party (PP) which has consistently appealed to the Constitutional Court in a bid to block a referendum it believes is unconstitutional, arguing that the sovereignty resides with all Spaniards.
It also comes several weeks after this paper revealed secret Catalan government plans to unilaterally declare independence in the event that a referendum is not held – a decision labeled by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as “intolerable blackmail.”
But Catalan government spokeswoman Neus Munté recently justified the move citing Madrid’s “refusal” to negotiate a legal referendum that all parties could accept.
Rajoy’s position throughout the Catalan nationalists’ independence drive has been that Spanish Congress must approve a referendum on self-rule, as its outcome affects all Spaniards, not just Catalans.
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